Page 78 of Before You
“Marley dated the quarterback before JJ. He found out they’re together this week, and obviously, he’s not taking it well,” Mirabelle explains, and I hate how awful it makes everything sound. If anything, JJ is the innocent one in all of this. I didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m aware of how everything can be perceived. Unless people know about JJ and me meeting two and a half years ago, it doesn’t sound great I ended up dating my ex’s roommate a few weeks after we broke up.
“If Hart keeps it up, he’ll be pulled before half. There’s nothing we can do right now, so let him dig his own grave,” Henry says, and I fidget with the ring on my thumb as our offense takes the field again.
“Yeah, but it’s also not making JJ look great either,” Mirabelle adds.
“Fuck, this is a ranked team getting slaughtered eighteen nil in the second quarter,” Hunter says under his breath, shaking his head. He rubs his eyes and mutters something under his breath about his contacts, but I forget what I was going to ask as I look for JJ on the field while the teams line up again.
I really need to ask JJ to explain football to me so I’m not clueless. I want to understand the game he loves.
“Holy shit,” Mirabelle says, grabbing my arm. “He’s passing it to JJ!”
“Finally,” Thalia says, as my gaze lands on JJ with his arms stretched out to catch the ball.
The victory is short lived when he’s hit from the side by another player, my throat catching as we watch him go down.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
JJ
TRENT AVOIDING ME is something I don’t mind, except when he’s also doing it on the field, throwing off the balance of our team.
Coach Dixon, our head coach, is losing his fucking mind on the sidelines, but I’m right there with him, barely keeping a grip on my temper. I haven’t touched the ball the entire fucking game, but I think the only thing to possibly make this worse is if I got in Trent’s face for letting personal shit affect football. After throwing an interception while trying to get it to our wide receiver who has been double teamed all day, he’s making it painfully obvious to everyone who he has a problem with. The Colorado Cougars defense isn’t even bothering to cover me with anyone, and Trent is still choosing to ignore every play involving me.
It’s embarrassing and it makes both of us look bad.I clench my hands in my gloves as our crowd jeers at Trent, clearly frustrated with the numbers on the scoreboard.
“What the fuck is he thinking?” Asher asks, lowering his voice. “Is he really going to blow this game rather than get the damn ball to you?”
I thought the end of it would have been the shitty practice yesterday.
“Apparently,” I answer, trying to keep myself composed before I make everything worse.
I didn’t mean to pin him against the wall—actually, even thinking that is a lie. My only regret is it happened in front of Marley. Despite nothing happening while they were still together, I know she feels guilty for the timing of everything. We haven’t exactly had a chance to talk about the other night because she was pretty shaken up after Asher came to get Trent, and then my parents got here.
I know how big I am, and I try to be nothing but gentle with her because I know how intimidating I can come across, but my temper slipped hearing the shit he was saying to her. I don’t want her to be afraid of me or think I’m capable of being violent, but I’m going to protect the people I love.
I couldn’t stand there and listen to him berate her for something that never happened because us being together isn’t wrong. She’s the only thing in a long time to make sense to me.
I glance up at the box my family is in today, and I can only imagine how pissed off my family is. This clearly wasn’t the game for them to come to, but nevertheless, I’m glad they’re here.
“Fuck this,” I mumble under my breath, spraying water into my mouth.
“Whatever the fuck happened between you, fix it,” Luka says, moving to stand next to me.
“How do you want me to do that?”
He smacks my back, a grunt slipping from my mouth. “You’re supposed to be the smart one. Figure it out because our shit is getting rocked out there.”
I scoff, walking toward where Trent is watching the field further down the sideline. I guess our offensive coordinator is done yelling at him until the next time we come off the field. Hecatches sight of me and immediately turns away, but I’m sick of this.
“Look, we don’t have to like each other, but you’re screwing everyone over by not getting the ball to me. I’ve been wide open the entire game after you made it clear to the other team you have a problem with me. Grow the fuck up and leave your shit off the field, or do everyone a fucking favor and don’t bother going back out there.”
He turns to stare at me, a hard expression on his face. I’m not interested in anything he has to say, though, so I walk away, antsy to get back on the field.
This is a fucking nightmare, but it only further proves Trent is a piece of shit who was never good enough for Marley. Hell, I’m not even sure if I’m good enough, but I’m willing to try.
Shaking off the fact we’re down eighteen points is hard, but if we can get our shit together and give our defense a break, we might be able to come back from this deficit.
I listen carefully, awaiting the play to be called, and I try not to react when Trent actually calls a passing play involving me.Maybe he does have some common sense after all.
